NAIROBI: Religious leaders are the latest recruits in the war by conservationists against those slaughtering thousands of elephants and rhinos across Africa each year.

The partnership was sealed Thursday night inside Kenya’s Nairobi National Park, where three dozen religious leaders from nine African countries gathered amid rhinos, zebras, buffalo and ostriches all within site of the skyline of Kenya’s capital. Standing before a pile of charred elephant ivory as dusk covered the surrounding savannah, Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious leaders grasped hands and prayed. The remains were from a 1989 burn of confiscated ivory that Kenya set on fire to draw attention to the slaughter.

“Faith leaders are the heart and backbone of local communities,” a conservationist noted. “They guide and direct the way we think, behave and live our lives,” she said, adding later: “I think this is the missing piece in conservation strategies”